I was a bad person...didn't update this thread nearly enough! So here's the cliffs notes of the rabbit hole adventure the car took us down. We got the "427" running. Got the rear end all rebuilt, new u-joints in the driveshaft, new 3" half shafts, trailing arms, bearings, brakes, lines, fuel lines, body mounts done. Put the inserts in the pipes and put them on. Drove the car around the block twice after fighting to get the clutch to release after sitting for years and blew the engine. Headgaskets puked everywhere. So I tore the top end off and found a number of interesting things. First, it was put together terribly. Some of the head studs were ultra tight, some were barely finger tight. So no surprise it failed. But I also found that the heads had been cut for o-rings, but none were present. The pistons were huge domed things. After I got this deep I said screw it, we're not fixing this since it needs different pistons to be pump gas friendly and everything else. After a week or two of mulling over things, being mad, etc we had a great idea. The 468 in the blazer runs like a raped ape and was actively trying to beer can the truck. Instead of continuing to let it, I'd just swap it to the vette and repower the blazer. So one night after work I pulled the short block out of the car and found that it was actually a 454 block from a 70s truck. But the crank was a stock cast 396/427 crank. It had forged manley rods in it, and the huge domed pistons. Freaking weird.
Anyways, that weekend I pulled the front clip off the blazer, yanked the engine out, swapped the bellhousings and clutch/flywheel and dropped it in the car. Sunday I finished everything up and drove it around the block. The whole thing was worth it at this point! That engine works so much better in the car than it ever did in the truck. After that, I buttoned up stuff some more (in roadkill fashion) and I took it to a local body shop and had them bond the front end. They had it about a month, and had to straighten the frame some to get things lined up. This poor car has been through some stuff! Since then, I've tried to fix some of the hack wiring, put in the headlights, done 2 alternators (had very bad luck with that for a while!), and got the wipers working. She drives it once or twice a week. Little 5'3" 105lb Ashley driving the 600hp non power steering, non power brake corvette.
She loves the thing.
Sorry for language. Almost threw my phone out the back...
The headlights automatically deploy at 50mph. It's a safety feature!
And since the thing is kind of a jerk, we named it:
